Burlington/Oakville, Brantford, Hamilton, Milton

THE IMPACT OF BILL 148: Regardless of the size, sector or location of your business in Ontario, you are most likely discussing the impact of the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 otherwise known as “Bill 148”. Without a doubt, there is a lot of information to process regarding this legislation which requires attention and review of any number of your company policies.

The Norfolk Fruit Growers' Association (www.nfga.ca), who kindly Hosted this special event,provides top-quality Ontario apples. They grow, store, pack and market apples for grower members and others from their facility in Norfolk County, Ontario. Their member-growers represent 1100 acres of orchard and account for almost 12% of all the apples produced by Ontario's 225 commercial growers.

Members attending this month’s Senior Manager’s session joined us from a very broad…

With the headlines full of stories about Ontario’s labour law changes, it’s refreshing to take some time to hear about ways that governments assisting businesses financially.

At the December Strategic Interest Group Event in Burlington, Jeff Mitobe, Engineering Manager with Northbridge Consultants, led a discussion about using government funds and receiving SR&ED tax credits.

With respect to SR&ED, the key is to be able to demonstrate an iterative body of work with respect to the process for which you were making your claim. It is noteworthy that your efforts are not required to elevate the technology of the industry, but rather to elevate the technology…

As members know, one of the best things about attending an EMC SIG event is gaining an understanding of the pain points in other sectors. Recently, at a SIG event held at Arterra Wines Canada, the audience comprised one other wine producer, two food producers, and nearly half a dozen manufacturers outside of the food/beverage sector.

While not every manufacturer faces challenges to their supply chain from things like the effect of a hot summer on plant growth, drinking trends based on popular movies and television shows, long-term supply contracts that require them to buy everything that their suppliers produce, or highly regulated sales channels, all of those present could relate to challenges resulting from constraints on their system.

During our discussion, we also explored commonalities across sectors, such as…

Do your Lean activities result in the positive fatigue of a job well done? Does Lean wear out your CI staff? How can you initiate and maintain momentum for continuous improvement?

Members who attended our October SIG at Innomotive Solutions Group came to talk about many aspects of lean implementation. They were concerned with how to deal with staff who were too busy to spend time on Lean initiatives. They wanted to know what pitfalls to avoid. They were also interested in how to apply Lean to the challenge of short lead times and made-to-order goods.

As part of our discussion of those (and other) topics, members offered a lot of advice, such as:

Consensus is building that automation is becoming necessary. EMC members discussed Investing in Automation during our roundtable SIG on September 14th at Techplace in Burlington. Technology replaces boring or dirty jobs, increases quality and decreases variation, eliminates bottlenecks, reduces dangerous tasks to increase health and safety, or allows you to get the job done when you can’t hire humans to do the task. Our members provided examples of all of these.

Take Our Kids to Work Day (on November 1, 2017, in most provinces and territories) is an annual opportunity to educate future workers about great manufacturing jobs, boost employee morale, and raise your profile in the community. Before you dismiss the idea of taking part, read on!

What do high schoolers (a.k.a. your future workforce) think when you say: Firefighter, Doctor, Accountant, Spy?

What do they think of when you say: Manufacturer?

Many of our members have found creative ways to allow employees and their Grade 9 children to take part in Take Your Kid to Work Day with relatively minor disruptions and high safety. For specific schedules, activities, resources, and advice, send an email to Member Needs Help, requesting the files on “Bring…

If visual controls are supposed to provide information is at a glance, why did we spend so much time talking about them? At the last SIG we had to impose strict time limits on each company so that everyone could have a chance to share slides of their visual controls with the group.

There was a huge variety of visual controls, in production areas as well as for safety and human resources functions. We were shown floor decals, magnets applied to metal waste barrels (and to racking, status boards, work assignment boards, and CI tracking boards). There were many versions of thermometer posters, which tracked injuries, quality, and production among other things. We saw a fair number of white boards, from custom-made tracking boards to homemade versions made from plexiglass…

You'll never live long enough to make enough mistakes to learn everything you need to know. Take it from a Ministry of Labour inspector (who sees a lot of mistakes) -- a robust health and safety culture is a wise investment.

What you think of when you hear the words “Ministry of Labour Inspector”? Do you think of someone who’s trying to help you avoid WSIB claims? Do you see an organization trying to level the playing field between employers? Is this a person who is going to help increase awareness of health and safety issues and support a positive health and safety culture in your organization? This is how Ministry of Labour Inspectors, such as our guest speaker, Bob vanWyk, see themselves. Their job is to use the…

Some initiatives, such as 5S, naturally improve discipline in a plant. However, most discipline issues sit squarely in the soft side of management: dealing with people.

The participants at the May 18 SIG on the Culture of Discipline didn’t waste too much time talking about poor discipline, beyond noting that many people fear that employees will leave if they’re disciplined. That did not seem to be a fear of those present in the room, however.

In general, it was felt the discipline process needed to be fair, well documented, and consistent, and it has to have received sign-off from all representative groups.

Setting aside philosophical discussions of whether humans are "assets" or the motive force of your organization, making sure you have the right human with the right skills in the right place at the right time is what succession planning is all about.

Participants of the May 18 SIG event on Succession Planning started the morning by discussing how they use succession planning in their workplace. One participant said that they were looking at it because they were opening a new plant. Another talked about their aging workforce and the risk they were facing losing knowledge when workers retired. Another uses succession planning to foster employee development.

Participants agreed that the first step in a succession plan is to establish what…